Quality
by The Forgotten Femmes
Summary: When Garrett returns after a month long absence, Kate is not ready to just take him back without making him work a little first.


_**Title: **_Quality

_**Summary: **_When Garrett returns after a month long absence, Kate is not ready to just take him back without making him work a little first.

_**Pairing: **_Kate/Garrett

_**POV:**_ Kate

_**Rating: **_T/PG-13

_**Entry for Forgotten Femmes Contest**_

_**Disclaimer:**_ I own none of the characters (except for Hanz the German bartender). They are all Stephenie Meyer's, I'm just borrowing them for a little fun

* * *

_"If we survive this, I'll follow you anywhere woman!"_

I snorted at the memory. Some promise that turned out to be. No sooner had we arrived back at Denali from Washington than Garrett high-tailed it to parts unknown.

Well, fine. Good for him. It's not like I _needed_ him or something. I didn't need anyone. I was a succubus. Men worshipped at my feet- I could have my pick, and Garrett could go screw yourself.

"Are you still thinking about the nomad?"

I glanced to my right as Tanya plopped down next to me on the porch step.

"No," I replied, though I knew I answered too quickly, and too harshly. "Why would I be thinking about him? It's been a month, and you know what they say. _Out of sight, out of mind._ And he's so out of my mind that it's not funny."

Tanya snorted inelegantly at my claim. It always surprised me that such a pretty girl could act like such a… _guy_ at times.

"Please, Kate, it's me you're talking to, and we both know I find you to be a terrible liar. You haven't been able to get that boy off your mind since the second he left. Why didn't you go after him?"

"I thought about it in that first week," I admitted softly. Only to Tanya would I ever say such a thing. "But it didn't seem right at the time with… with… well… it just didn't seem right."

It had been a month and I still couldn't say Irina's name. It was as if, by saying it out loud, it made it true. That it proved my sister was dead.

"I understand." Tanya wrapped an arm around my shoulder and hugged me to her side. "I still find it difficult to say too." She gave her head a shake and gave me that lecherous grin she got when she wanted to talk men. "But that doesn't explain why you're still here now and he's _not_."

I quirked my head and surveyed Tanya. The grin was there, but her eyes were still sad. Still, I could understand her wanting to avoid the topic of Irina. I felt the same. The pain was still too fresh, so I grasped onto this topic.

"I thought about it, but then decided it wasn't worth it. The man is _apparently_ all talk. He claims he'll follow me anywhere, and then leaves as soon as the battles done." I gave a derisive scoff. "Well, if he's too dumb to see what he's missing then I suppose I'm better off-" I cut off when a familiar scent hit my nose. I snapped to my feet, sniffing the air, wondering if it was just my imagination.

"Kate, what is it?" Tanya stood as well.

"Do you smell that?" I asked, still sniffing the air. "Please tell me you smell that."

"What am I supposed to be- oh! Well… Romeo returns."

"I certainly hope I'm not a Romeo. Worthless little bastard he was. So flighty and arrogant. That type never gets the girl."

A less poised and elegant creature would have jumped when Garrett appeared, leaping down from the roof of the house, but not me.

Tanya did.

"It took you long enough to catch on. I was practically on top of you girls before you caught my scent," Garrett 'tsked' mockingly. "Not very vampirish of you."

"Is _vampirish_ even a word?" I sneered back, tossing my hair. "Although, it doesn't surprise me that you have to invent new ones. It must be difficult holding a decent conversation with your limited expanse of vocabulary."

"Ouch, Katie, you wound me," Garrett grasped his heart in fake pain. When my reply was to stare back unimpressed he grinned up at me. "Aren't you going to welcome me home, Kate?"

I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Home?" I repeated. "This is hardly your _home_, Garrett. You blew that opportunity when you left last month without a word."

Tanya was looking back and forth between us.

"Ummm… I think I'm going to go inside and see what Eleazar is doing," she said, backing slowly towards the door. "Give you kids some privacy." She paused briefly next to me to hiss into my ear. "Before you go all shock girl on him, look at his eyes. Play nice."

That said, my sister entered the house quickly, the door closing behind her with a resounding thud. I turned my attention back to Garrett and looked at his eyes to see what Tanya had meant.

Despite all my poise and elegance, what I saw made me gasp in surprise.

They were a deep, burnished gold. Garrett had spent the last month changing his diet.

"I wanted to make you proud, Katie," Garrett hopped up onto the porch so he stood in front of me. "Did it work?"

I reached up my hand to touch him, but when I saw that it was trembling I quickly pulled it back. I found the fact that he had changed his diet for me totally charming, but I was no pushover in the male department and he _had_ left me high and dry for a month without a word.

"I suppose you can stay," I said, affecting a coolness that I didn't actually feel. "I'd hate for you to fall off the wagon this early in the game because you were all alone. But don't think you'll be getting anything more than that." I stuck my nose up in the air. "I dislike it when men don't appreciate me as I deserve."

Garrett gave me a rakish grin that sent my insides quivering, at it took all my will strength not to just fall into his arms and let him have his naughty way with me.

"Oh, darling, you don't need to worry about that," he tipped my chin up with his hands and bent down to brush his lips with mine. "I know _exactly_ how to appreciate you."

That said, he gave me a wink and strolled into the house, acting for all the world as if he hadn't just given me a sad excuse for a kiss that left me want more. I stomped my foot angrily and growled after him.

Garrett- 1

Me- 0

But the battle had just begun. He may not realize it, but Garrett had just started a war of seduction against a master. A war I planned to win.

Not even Alice ever bet against this girl.

Garrett adapted surprisingly well to his new way of life. One would almost think he was a natural. In the week following his return there had been only one near slip-up that had resulted when one of Tanya's paramours got a little too close. Eleazar had easily prevented the near disaster, however, and the man had left non the wiser.

"Do you do that?" Garrett asked after he had calmed down and killed an elk.

"Do I do what?" I asked, watching him pace across the living room like a caged tiger.

"Do you… screw around with those humans from the town like your sister does?" he snarled, bending down so that his hands were on the chair arms on either side of me and he was looking me in the eye.

I quirked my head (it was a habit that I was trying to get rid of, but hadn't yet succeeded in doing) and narrowed my eyes at him.

"Are you… _jealous_?" I asked, feeling a grin tug at my lips.

"Jealous? Of humans?" he scoffed angrily. "Hardly. I'd just hate to think of you wasting time with little toys when there are real men to be had!"

"Real men like you?" my grin was growing larger. He was _so_ jealous and I was _so_ going to be taking advantage of it.

Going into seduction mode, I eased myself up out of the chair, forcing him to step back from me and ran my finger down his chest.

"I don't know. The humans are rather enjoyable, and so very, very warm," I purred, leaning in close to him so that my lips grazed his throat. "It would take someone special to make me give that up."

"Oh? And what would this someone special have to be like?" Garrett choked out, his jealousy replaced my lust.

"Well… he'd have to be strong, and loyal. He'd have to treat me like a Goddess, of course. I may give up humans for the right man, but I won't give up the way they worship me unless he's willing to do the same," as I spoke, I walked forward, forcing Garrett backwards until his knees hit the couch. I gave him a soft shove and he sat down. I followed closely, straddling his lap brazenly. "He'd have to be handsome- call me shallow, but I like to enjoy looking at my partners. Oh! And he has to be a vegetarian," I tapped my finger with my lip and noticed that Garrett watched the movement hungrily. I gave a bit of a wriggle, causing him to growl deep in his throat. Grinning wickedly, I shrugged airily and said, "But I haven't met anyone who meets my criterion yet, so I suppose I'll just have to settle for Hanz, the German immigrant who works at the bar. He really can do quite lovely things with his hands."

Grinning wickedly, I stood from his lap and flounced away.

"Tanya, I feel like going into town. Want to join me, or have you had enough fun for now?"

I heard a feral growl come from the living room behind me and my grin widened.

Garrett-1

Me-1

He might as well give up now.

What Garrett didn't know, and what I hadn't told him, was that I hadn't touched another man since I had met him. The humans that had once seemed so warm and welcoming to me no longer held any appeal. I no longer wanted to be wrapped in warm arms. I desired someone harder, someone cooler.

I desired Garrett.

And that kind of pissed me off. In all my hundreds of years I had never desired _just_ one man. I enjoyed variety and had never understood how Carmen and Eleazar and our other mated friends could want to spend eternity with just one person.

Eternity was a long time.

Still, I found myself desiring that with Garrett against my own will, which made continuing this game of seduction rather difficult. It wouldn't work if I wanted to jump in his arms every time I saw him.

"I don't get it," Tanya said as she watched me pace my room. "You found your mate. That one person that makes you want to settle. Why are you so uptight about it?" she laid her chin into her palms. "I'm actually kind of jealous. I wish I could find that."

I paused in my pacing to stare incredulously at Tanya.

"_You_? But… you're the worst of all of us for seducing the humans!"

Tanya shrugged unapologetically.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't want to find the One. I don't want to keep going through boys for all eternity. I want to find that someone who makes me burn and whose side I want to be by for always. You know what they say, it's the quality of the product, not the quantity. Until that happens, however, I'll settle for quantity rather than quality."

I had come to Tanya for help in my plan, but I left her unsure of whether or not I even wanted to continue

"You're teasing me."

I blinked up at Garrett who stood glaring down at me. I had been reading a book peacefully on the couch and now I was being accused of _teasing_. It seemed so ridiculous that I had to laugh.

"Garrett, I'm reading. How on earth do you get teasing out of _reading_?"

"I don't mean now, I mean in general. You've been taking advantage of every chance you got to tease me ever since I came back," Garrett kneeled down in front of me, his gold eyes looking into mine earnestly. "What I don't get is why. I thought we were in a good place when I left, and now… all I get is tease."

"We were in a good place," I told him coldly, turning back to my book. "_Before_ you left with a single word!"

"Is _that_ what this is about?" Garrett asked incredulously. "Katie, I just wanted to go out and prove to myself that I could do this, that I could adapt to this diet. I didn't want to hurt you like… like your sister was."

I was confused at first. How had Tanya been hurt?

Then I realized he wasn't talking about Tanya.

He was talking about Irina.

Irina and Laurent- the mate she had lost, which had resulted in the Volturi coming and ultimately in Irina's death.

I stared at the book without seeing any of the words, and if I had been human I'm sure silent tears would have been coursing down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry," Garrett's voice sounded pained. "I shouldn't have brought her up… oh God, Kate, look at me, please?"

"I have been teasing you," I said, my voice devoid of emotion. "You're right, and I shouldn't have." I caressed the pages of my book with my fingertips. "I was just so _mad_ because you left, and I needed you, and you were just trying to do the best thing for me and I'm not sure if you're an idiot or the sweetest man alive for doing that!"

By the end of my rant, my voice was breaking with tearless sobs. Garrett grasped me in his arms and pulled me close to his body. Our bodies fit together like puzzle pieces, and I didn't care that he wasn't warm. I revelled in the feeling of being held by someone who actually cared about me.

"I'm sorry, Kate," he murmured into my ear. "I should have spoke to you before I left. It's just… you and Tanya were so broken up over Irina, and I didn't want to burden you with the what-ifs of our relationship. That was damn foolish of me, and if you can bring yourself to forgive me I promise that I'll never leave your side again."

"You'll follow me anywhere?" I asked, stealing his words.

"To the gates of hell and back," he promised.

I pulled him to me and kissed him with all the passion and desire that I had kept locked away.

"That's for caring enough to change for me," I said once we broke away. Then, dipping into the part of myself that controlled my power, I sent a powerful shock through him that caused him to yelp and jump back.

"What the hell Kate? We were having a moment!"

"And it was a very sweet moment. I hope to have many more in the future," I agreed calmly. "But that was for leaving without saying anything. I thought you had pulled an Edward on me!"

"Pulled an Edward?" Garrett looked confused. "What has he got to do with any of this?"

"It's a long story, one probably best told by one of his brothers, or possibly Alice. The point is that I thought you had just abandoned me, and that meant that I was mourning for _you_ as well as my sister."

"Oh, Kate. I'm so, so sorry," Garrett ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not very good at this relationship thing. My lifestyle until now hasn't being very good for forming any. Can you ever forgive me?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Of course, Garrett. Did you not just hear me say that I hope to have many more moments with you in the future? How would we accomplish that if we weren't together," I pulled him up and into my arms. "Now, I recall you saying something about a real man… care to show me how it's done?"

Garrett gave me a slow grin and swooped me up into his arms, carrying me up to my room.

Tanya had been right- there was something to be said about quality.


End file.
